Crimson Ethics
by pivot4469
Summary: [DISCONTINUED] One day Tails mysteriously vanishes into thin air. When the search for him uncovers something very sinister, it'll be up to two selfless heros to put a stop to a new threat. One that if not prevented, will put an end to the very planet itself and erase all life that it holds from existence.
1. An Odd Disappearance

**I**t was just one of those normal days, nothing of any real interest going on. The white clouds slowly gliding across the blue sky, the golden sun slowly starting to move down toward the Horizon, while its powerful rays glaring through Sonic's open window started to dim. Sonic had been up since 7:30 in the morning, from a night without much sleep at all, and with nothing to do with all his extra energy, not to mention nobody around, he stared to get fairly bored and needed something to do with all his free time.

He wasn't really the kind of guy to be away from everyone. He'd always been the person who'd like to hang out with his friends. So as a result, he decided to call up his childhood friend, who was like family to him. Walking over to the Wireless phone that was resting on a small circular table next to the couch, Sonic picked it up and started dialing tail's number.

Sonic then let out a sigh and sat down on the couch, leaning back relaxing with the phone to his ear. First he heard the dial-tone. Then the ringing, hoping that tails would pick up. Tail's always picked up Sonic's calls, due to the caller id so he was pretty much expecting a response. However, with in about 7 rings of the dial tone, the phone automatically went to tail's voice mail. "Hey, it's me tails. Leave your name and number at the beep, and I'll get right back to you as soon as i can."

This, didn't really surprise sonic in the least, since tails is always doing something involving technology. So it's obvious he'd be very busy with some sorta project he came up with in the middle of the night. Sonic didn't hear the beep as he hung up, deciding not to bother with the phone, resting it back in the Charging holder.

"Well, i guess that I'll head over to tail's shop and see what's up." Sonic had said this to himself as he then hopped up off the couch, and grabbed the remote turning off his 42 inch, Flat screen Tv. He had already seen all the important news, and began walking down the narrow hall to his bedroom.

He walked down the hall, one foot moving in front of the other as he slowly reached his room, taking a left turn as he rested his hand on the doorway. He then proceeded to walk in, making another left turn and walked into his walk-in closet, flipping on the light switch to look at his Attire of outfits. "Hmm...i wonder what i should wear today?" Sonic said to himself disgustedly. He had gotten tired of the bland feeling from wearing nothing but Sneakers and gloves, so he decided to mix it up today.

He looked over his shoulder and saw a Royal blue leather jacket, that really caught his eye. "Oh hey, this is one of my favorite jackets! Still in mint condition too." He said now abit interested as he walked over and took it off the hanger. He automatically decided he was going to wear this and looked around for some pants to go with it, since there wasn't really a point to wearing a Jacket if you're not going to have pants of any kind to go along with it.

He looked around and grabbed a black undershirt, putting it on his body, then the jacket for a nice touch, looking around for some jeans or shorts to wear. He shrugged grabbing some dark blue slacks, adjusting his clothes and making sure the jacket was open to revel the black under shirt as it covered his jeans front waistline, and the jacket covered the side's and back of the shirt.

"Some nice black or blue sneakers, would go great with this right now." Sonic thought as he then looked under the shelf's of clothes on the floor. The closet had three layers of shelf's. The top had hat's, Goggles, and head accessory's. The middle had Shirts, undershirts, tank-tops, jackets, T-shirts and anything that goes on the upper body. The lower shelf had Jeans, shorts and underwear. Then under the last shelf, on the floor was rows of boxes. Sonic squatted down, reaching for a Black box.

He slid it out from under the shelf and and curled his fingers under the Square shaped lid, opening the box to reveal his Shiny black sneakers with red bottoms. These where his secondary pair of sneakers, he'd like to wear every once in a while. He closed the box lid and slid it back under the shelf as he stood up, slowly stepping into his sneakers to make sure he didn't mess them up.

He fixed the collar on his jacket, adjusting it so it wasn't uncomfortable. Sonic then walked out the closet, flicking off the light switch on the way out as he grabbed a a belt off the dresser near his bed, putting it on as he walked toward the room door making his way into the hallway. He was now fully dressed as he got to the end of the hall, feeling like he shouldn't wear anything on his head today.

Getting into the living room, he had already turned off everything. So he walked to the front door, grabbing his Keys, Wallet, Mp3 player and a headset of white astros with blue stripes off the Stand near the front door. He walked outside closing the door behind him and turned around, putting the key in the hole turning it to the right locking the door.

Sonic walked down the steps of his front porch, going down the sidewalk putting the Mp3 player in his pocket while he made his way down the street and worked on his astros putting them around his neck. As he kept walking he got to a street corner, and stopped as cars that where sitting there, frozen traffic starting to move again as the light on the post Sonic was standing next to turned green.

As the cars drove, and the street cleared he continued walking to the other side of the street, passing by a famous Mobian cafe that sold High quality Caffeine, many kinds of Donuts, had Free wifi and sold a few other foods. Sitting by one of the windows of said cafe was Amy, eating a Donut from a medium box full of them, that was on the table she was sitting at. As she took a bite out of it she noticed a slow moving blue blur at the corner of her eye, and since nobody else she knew was blue she automatically knew who it was.

Getting out of her seat quickly and closing the box of donuts, as she took it by the handle on the lid, Amy ran out the cafe and walked up beside sonic looking at him, seeming happy to see him. However, Amy wasn't wearing her usual attire today either. She had on some long black distressed jeans, with a Grey tank top that hugged the top of her body, grey gloves to match the tank top, and some black sneakers to match her jeans. She had already paid for the Donut pack, as she ordered them so it was taken care of. She tried starting a conversation with him, since a couple years ago, he used to run if she got near him and the fact he was acting so different made her very happy inside mainly because this made her feel as if he was accepting her for once.

"So...Sonic, what's going on?" She said as a warm smile started to form on her face.

"Well, i called Tails, and he didn't pick up so im headed over to his workshop to see what's going on." He stated in reply.

"Yeah, hes always inviting something, so you can't really be all that sure what's up." She said back as she walked with him.

Sonic had actually matured quite abit over the years and as he grew up his personality and even mentality changed along with his body too. By now, at this time in his life Sonic had gotten abit less cocky and arrogant, but instead got more kind, calm, considerate of those around him and even what they thought.

He gained more patience as well, thus being the reason why he was able to actually be around Amy and talk to her without wanting to run away. Amy looked at him, opening the donut box smiling, wondering if he'd actually like them. She knew Sonic was only into Chilly-dogs, and wasn't sure if he'd like or really eat anything else.

"Would you like one of these? There's plenty so help yourself if you'd like." She said, prompting him to take a donut as she held the box up abit so he could see the donuts clearly. He looked down at her then the box, smiling as he took out a light colored donut with a vanilla plastered top and brought it up to his lips, taking a bite out of it.

As he took the bite, the donut let out a gooey purple cream filling as he started chewing it. After a few seconds of eating it, he swallowed taking another bite and repeated this until the donut was gone, looking at Amy afterwards.

"Hm, that was actually pretty good. I didn't know donuts could be made like that."

Sonic actually did eat a few things other then chilly-dogs but he didn't tell that to Amy, thinking she'd bother him to try something else.

"Well, you should try more foods then just Chilly-dogs every once in a while. There's lots of wonderful stuff out there you know." Amy stated this in a mocking manner as if sonic didn't need any kind of food other then chilly dogs, since this is the only thing she knew he ate.

Coming up to another street corner, He and Amy both noticed the sun was going down, as the sky dimmed abit while they crossed the street to the other side, continuing their path down the sidewalk as they started to pass by low to the ground street lamps, that where now starting to light up from the sun going out of the sky.

The cool night air started to roll in as the amount of overall clouds lessened, and in minutes the whole sky was dark, covered in bright lit up stars with the exception of a few clouds here and there. Cars started driving down the street next to them and they both had a very clear view of the sky, time passing to the now night time environment.

Up ahead, Tail's shop could be seen and this meant their walk was going to end soon. The area around Tail's shop was pretty dark, clearly indicating nobody was there. Sonic didn't really care about this, and simply walked over to the front door and rang the bell, thinking it would be worth a try. After about 30 seconds, Sonic gave the Door-bell another ring, thinking maybe he'd get a response.

However, just as with the first ring, the blue hedgehog didn't get a reply of any kind. Considering their current situation at this point, Sonic was now confused and didn't know where else to turn from here so he headed back over to Amy who knew what was going on. At this point, both of them had the same thought. Just where was tails?


	2. The Search Continues

"He's not here." Sonic sighed. "Guess this walk was for nothing."

"Wait.." Amy looked at him.

"Hm? What is it?" Sonic asked.

"This is going to sound dumb, but Did you try the front door?" Amy scratched her head.

Sonic paused and turned around curiously walking back towards the door from where he just came. He grabbed the handle, turning it clockwise and pushed forward against the door slightly. It began to open, confirming the suspicion's of Amy. Sonic pulled the door closed and stepped back with an uneasy look on his face. He turned around walking back to Amy again. She was still standing in the same spot, curious as to what he found.

"So?" She asked abit eagerly.

"You were correct. It was open." Sonic said still looking uneasy.

"Well i always was a smart little rose." Amy giggled rubbing her nose arrogantly.

"But.." Sonic stopped.

"Huh?" Amy noticed something was wrong.

"Tails **never** forgets to lock his door. Why would he suddenly forget?" Sonic asked her.

"So then you mean-" A feeling of fear washed over her.

"Yes. If we're on the same page, it's clear he **didn't** leave on his own."

Sonic crossed his arms, realizing the true seriousness of the situation. One of his closest friends was missing. He didn't know how long it had been, how he went missing, or if he was okay.

"Lets go home?" Amy suggested.

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea for now." Sonic walked past her going the way they came from.

"I'll use my computer and conduct a few searches tonight." Amy said while following along.

They kept walking, both of them thinking of the same thing. Amy tried remaining enthusiastic, but deep down she also knew something was wrong. None of it added up to her in the end. The disappearance, the door, the shop being unlocked as if Tails forgot, nothing made sense. Deep in the back of her mind she came to the worst case scenario, regardless of how many times she shrugged it off.

After walking for abit they reached the café from earlier. Amy stopped infront of the door, noticing she had the box which was property of the business. Amy walked into the café to return it as Sonic waited outside. She approached the front desk placing the box on the counter. The cashier who was still there walked out from the back of the building.

Before she could start speaking to the cashier, her attention was drawn down to her pants pocket. Her cell phone was going off. She reached down and pulled it out, taking a look at her caller ID before she picked up. Amys eyes widened a small bit in surprise as she noticed it said "Hospital". She immediately tapped the screen of her phone and brought it up to her ear.

"H-hello...?" She stuttered.

"Amy! It's an emergency!" A familiar female voice exclaimed frantically to her.

"Wait, Who is this!?" Amy asked in an heavy confusion.

"Get to the Hospital! Hurry!" The voice said again.

The familiar voice began to ring a bell.

"Hold on..Cream is that you?! Cream!" The call had already ended.

Amy threw her phone into her pocket and sprinted toward the door, pulling it open as fast as she could. She didn't know what was happening and stopped thinking. Amy quickly grabbed Sonics arm, running down the sidewalk. He didn't know what happened, nor why Amy was suddenly so erratic but followed her anyway.

They ran and kept running for at least thirty minutes straight until they reached the downtown Mobian Central Plaza. Amy burned all of her energy in the process of running such massive distance without a brake. Having slowed down along with the energy she had being gone, the numb feeling of her legs finally hit her. Everything below her knees were numb. Sonic could see she was pushing herself past what her body could handle.

The Duo maneuvered through the cars in the Hospital parking lot until they reached the front entrances. Amys legs finally couldn't take anymore of the strain, and gave out. As she tried to move her other leg, which was off the ground it wouldn't respond causing her to fall. Sonic wasn't remotely tired, because running was what did with his life. He stopped to help her up, carrying her on his back.

Sonic brought her inside, approaching the front desk. Taking a wild guess Sonic came out and asked the attendants.

"Hi, is someone by the name of Miles Prower enlisted in here?" Sonic asked.

"What is your relation to the patient?" The receptionist replied looking at a computer screen.

"We're both his friends." He replied.

"Take the door on your left. Go down the hall until you reach the elevators. He's in room 848, on floor 8."

"Thank you." Sonic turned to the door.

Both of their suspicions were now confirmed. It was a bittersweet moment for them. Sonic made his way down the hall quickly. He took the elevator up to the 8'th floor, and searched around until he found room 848. Amy got off his back, her legs feeling slightly better. Sonic grabbed the doorknob and opened it slowly, the sound of a vitals machine beeping becoming the first audiable thing.

The room was barely lit, most of the lights being off, the only light in the room being the flatscreen tv mounted on the wall. Sonic stepped in and stopped as he noticed Tails laying in the bed, his body covered by a blanket. He looked over the bed noticing a figure in the corner. Amy walked in and approached the figure, whispering.

"Cream?" She asked trying to make out who it was.

The figure stood up and moved into the light, enough for her to see. It was indeed Cream. Amy stood there, speechless. The last time she had seen her was 9 years ago. Amy hugged her tightly feeling happy to see her childhood friend after so long. Sonic looked at the two of them then at Tails. Amy turned around, along with Cream looking at Sonic.

They had found who they were looking for. Their search for the fox was over. The question now was, who or what put him where he is?


	3. The Question

Sonic stood there staring down at Tails with a concerned look on his face. Although they knew where he was, and the fact he was alive was relieving, it didn't answer the new question the hedgehogs had. What or who could have put him here? And why?

Amy grabbed Creams wrist gently pulling her along as she walked to the door. When she got near Sonic she signaled him to follow her as she stepped out into the hall. He followed, slowly closing the door behind him on his way out.

"Listen i didn't want to disturb Tails. Do we know what happened to him?" Amy asked.

"No, the nurses say he just isn't waking up." Cream looked down.

"Tsh. .We'll **Find** a way to wake him up." Sonic crossed his arms.

"That's what i like to hear." Amy smiled at Sonic's responce.

"What now though Amy?" Sonic asked her.

"I say we go home. It's late." Amy looked at him. "We should all come back tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan." Cream yawned.

"Fine, i guess discovering what happened will be easier with sleep." Sonic shrugged.

Cream was already walking down the hallway they used to get there. Amy followed behind her.

In just five minutes they made it down to the first floor and walked out the hospital. They made way through the parking lot, no longer rushing as opposed to earlier. Now that she had time to think about the subject, Amy was just as curious as anyone else. Cream walked over to a white four door Car, gaining Amy and Sonics attention.

"Cream?" Amy looked suprised. "You. . .You drive?"

"I know. It's wonderful isn't it?" Cream opened the driver side door.

"When did you start driving?" Sonic asked. "I mean, you never really seemed like the driving type."

"Sonic!" Amy crossed her arms. "That is so insensitive!" She seemed upset.

"I'm sure Cream doesn't care." Sonic shrugged. "Do ya Cream?"

"Nope. Now get in, i'll drive you guys home." Cream got in and started the Car.

"See?" Sonic got into the back on the right side.

Amy rolled her eyes and got in the passenger seat. Upon closing all the doors Cream slowly reversed, pulling the Car out of the parking space. She pulled off slowly driving out onto the road. It was obvious to Amy and Sonic, that she had done this before.

Sonic, stayed quiet for a while due to getting lost in his thoughts. Tails wasn't the only thing on his mind. He was constantly trying to figure out what happened. No matter how much he tried to stop thinking about it, Sonic couldn't get it out of his head.

After telling Cream where she lived at, Amy and her started catching up. Some of which Sonic had blocked out from thinking to hard.

In a while of driving, time seemed to pass alot quicker then Amy expected. They had already arrived at her apartment complex, and parked infront of her building. They sat in the Car for a few more minutes.

Cream checked her phone. 11:27 PM. Amy got out of the Car, walking to the building.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow at the hospital! And thanks for the ride!" Amy waved while walking away.

"You're welcome! Get some sleep!" Cream waved back with a smile.

The yelling between them snapped Sonic out of his thoughts. At least enough for him to pay attention to Cream now. She looked at Sonic through the rear-view mirror, now noticing the spaced out expression on his face.

"Are you okay Sonic? You seem troubled."

"Huh?" He looked at her through the mirror. "Yeah, i think so."

"You think?" Cream drove forward. "What does that mean?"

"Well this whole thing with Tails just. ."

"I know how you feel Sonic." She turned pulling out the complex.

"You do?" Sonic seemed suprised.

"Yeah. Anyone would feel that way if their friend was hurt." She drove out onto the road again.

"Well that's just it. . ." He said sounding concerned.

"That's just what?" Cream was clearly getting confused.

"Tails isn't just a friend to me. He's like the little** Brother** i never had - Always wanted."

"So essentially, he filled that void not having a family left in you?" Cream kept driving down the lit up night streets.

He couldn't find a way to reply to that. Although, what she said did hit the nail on the head. Cream certainly wasn't wrong with that statement. Sonic had always been there to protect his friends, innocent people and even animals.

Having someone like Tails hurt, simply made him feel worse inside then she or Amy noticed. Cream pulled up and stopped the car infront of Sonics house. He looked out the window, then at her.

"How'd you know where my place was?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Amy told me." Cream laughed.

"Oh alright. . . . . ." Sonic took a long pause. "Wait! What?! Amy knows where i live?!"

"Yeah why?" Cream asked.

". . . .Why did i expect that?.." Sonic got out the Car.

"Well, i'll see you tomorrow?" Cream asked.

"Yeap. I'll keep you posted." Sonic turned around and walked to his front porch.

He took his keys out and unlocked the door. Cream drove off as he did, going down the street. Sonic walked into his house, clicking on the lights. He yawned, immediately remembering the fact he got practically no sleep yesterday.

Sonic chuckled to himself, dropping his leather jacket and headset on the couch. He walked to his room, stepping out of his sneakers and fell forward on the bed, not bothering to get undressed.

Despite thinking what happened with Tails would keep him up, Sonic fell asleep almost as if passing out.


	4. Giving Chase

Sonics peaceful slumber came to an abrupt end, from his cell phone ringing. Almost having a heart attack from the noise, Sonic slowly slid off the bed still half asleep. He hit the floor which woke him up abit. He fumbled for a second and pulled himself up using his bed, grabbing his phone off the dresser. Pressing the screen just in time, he answered it. In his groggy state he struggled to put together a proper greeting, much less stand on his own two feet.

"H-hello?. . ." He asked barely pronouncing the word.

"Sonic! You better get to the Hospital! Some stuff is going on down here!" Amy yelled over the phone through background noise.

"Is Tails alright?!" He yelled back pulling the mp3 player from his pocket.

"Just get over here! Now!" The call ended.

Sonic yawned, putting his phone where the Mp3 player was in his pocket. He ran out the room, leaving his jacket and headset. Once outside he just closed the front door.

Taking a deep breath, he ran down the sidewalk at a relatively fast pace. Sonic wasn't used to getting woken up suddenly like this and due to that his brain was taking it's time on waking up. After a few seconds of speeding, he came to a halt from running straight into a light post. Sonic fell on his back holding his face in pain.

This just wasn't going to work. Running at speeds like his while still waking up was not meant to be done.

He stretched, waking himself up while getting off the ground. Briefly remembering the path to the Hospital Sonic started running again, making his way to the downtown area. Considering his current situation he ran and jumped over whatever was in the way jumping onto and between Cars.

Within just a short time of three minutes he got there. Sonic skidded to a complete stop as he looked up to see an heavily upgraded Egg Carrier hovering next to the Hospitals side. Almost as if it was docked there. That couldn't be right. They destroyed that thing.

Sonic shook his head. He was getting distracted from his main reason for coming there.

After running into the lobby in the first floor, he quickly made his way to the hallways with the elevators. The hospital seemed empty, until Sonic finally got to the 8'th floor. Amy, Shadow and Cream were standing outside a room. Tails was unconscious still yet in the arms of the Hospital staff who remained behind them.

Getting through the crowd, Sonic once more stopped in his tracks. He saw yet another thing he believed was left in the past. Metal Sonic.

Amy pulled her Piko Piko hammer out, and charged at the Android. Once within close enough range she took her best shot, directly hitting Metal Sonic in the arm, who tried dodging it.

The attack smashed his arm below the elbow breaking anything below that point off. The force behind it also sent him through the wall of the Hospital room and into the Egg Carrier. Upon contact with the fortress Metal Sonic made a dent with his body.

Metal Sonic used his remaining arm to dig his claws into the hull of the massive hovering fortress. With Metal Sonic now holding on, the Carrier started moving away from the hospital.

"Sonic! You've got to stop that thing!" Amy looked over her shoulder to see Sonic already running toward her.

"What do you think i plan on doing?!" He ran past her jumping out through the large hole in the wall.

Curling up in mid-air, Sonic did a Homing Attack on Metal. The Droid dodged by a hair much to everyone surprise, using rocket thrusts in his feet. His dodge was also an attack, kicking Sonic up high into the air, using the rockets to add knock back to the blow.

The Carrier fully pulled away from the Hospital, beginning to fly off. Sonic rolled up the Building and stopped, quickly speeding down its wall before he could fall.

Once at the bottom Sonic jumped off the Building, landed with a pause, then continued running forward. Shadow hovered next to him, keeping up with his speed.

As the Carrier went through the city, buildings started getting in their way. Sonic quickly sped up and added more force to his footsteps, running along the walls of buildings while Shadow flipped and 'skated' over Vehicles with his Hover Shoes.

Eventually they cleared the Downtown district and hit the Beach. Sonic couldn't slow down in time to avoid the ocean, so he did the next best thing - Run on the water. Shadow was keeping up with him, staying just beside the blue blur.

They both began to notice something. The Egg Carrier was speeding up, and getting smaller. With it getting further away, catching it wasn't going to be easy.

Suddenly during their pursuit, a thought occurred to Shadow. If they couldn't catch it, maybe they could slow it down instead.

He clenched his fists, gathering up Chaos energy in his palms. Shadow threw one then the other right after. The glowing red energy spears flew past Sonic, going straight along the water before curving up like Surface To Air Missiles.

They both exploded against the bottom of the Egg Carrier, to which point Shadow began to throw more. Now noticing what was going on, Sonic slowed down to move behind Shadow.

Realizing his Chaos spears did significant damage, Shadow took off his inhibitor rings. He gathered massive amounts of now unrestrained Chaos energy in his hands, but instead of throwing the spears grabbed Sonic by his arms.

Shadow pulled Sonic off his feet and wrapped the Chaos energy around his body.

Before Sonic could say anything, Shadow threw him into the direction of the Egg Carrier. Sonic caught on to what Shadow was doing and charged up a sonic wind. This blue coming from the inner center of the red Chaos spear, turned it fully purple.

He wrapped the 'wind' around his body as he hit the Egg Carrier. Once the Chaos spear he was wrapped in made contact, it exploded blowing off a large chunk of metal and ripping a hole in the ship. With decent timing, Sonic expanded the wind around him outward to lesson the effect of the explosion and Chaos energy.

Shadow took the opportunity of that falling metal and jumped onto it. Sonic fell from where he hit the hull. With the ocean below him, and not being able to swim demise was guarantied.

Shadow jumped from the platform, grabbing Sonic on his way to the hole in the fortress. Pulling him up before he made it in, Shadow got him out of the air before he could hit the water.

Now on-board the Egg Carrier, they had to destroy it, and Metal Sonic again.


End file.
